Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has provided an insight into his reasons for confining Riqui Puig to the bench in the current campaign.
A product of the famed La Masia academy, the 21-year-old midfielder was long viewed as one of the finest talents to have blossomed in the Barca youth system in recent years, resulting in his eventual integration into the club’s first-team setup during the 2018/19 campaign.
Last season saw the technically-gifted young Spaniard’s game-time increase further under Quique Setien, with 11 La Liga appearances, including a respectable 5 starts.
With Puig generally looking impressive given the opportunity earlier to showcase his talents, the academy graduate had generally been expected to stake a claim for a first-choice midfield berth this season.
Unfortunately, up to this point in time, the opposite has happened instead, with the promising midfielder benched for the major part of the season after new boss Ronald Koeman’s arrival. To date, Puig has been given just a solitary league appearance amounting to a total of 3 minutes.
Frenkie de Jong, Miralem Pjanic and Sergio Busquets are all lined up ahead of the youngster in the midfield pecking order at the Camp Nou.
With the Catalan giants not exactly performing up to the highest expectations, some amongst the Barcelona faithful have made clear their frustrations with the manager’s treatment of Puig of late.
Speaking ahead of his side’s latest outing with Valencia on Saturday afternoon, Koeman was drawn in on the question regarding the 21-year-old’s continued absence from his starting XI.
Without pulling any punches, the Dutchman took a dig at Puig’s work ethic, insisting that ‘it’s not just about quality’ when attempting to earn game-time under his watch:
“I like people who work every day to improve, and who take opportunities with both hands. Sometimes it’s not just about quality. There may be players who don’t do enough in training for the coach to give opportunities.”
That doesn’t really give away much in throwing light on the actual reasons for pulling a straightjacket on Puig. Let’s just hope the conundrum between the obdurate manager and the promising midfielder is sorted out as quickly as possible, for Barcelona’s sake as they obviously need any help they can get in midfield.